Julian Serrano

On Tuesday night, Michael decided that he wanted to take me out to dinner, an offer I of course, couldn't refuse. He let me pick- I decided we should try out Julian Serrano's newer restaurant in Aria on the advice of my sommelier instructor.

The restaurant is very pretty inside, but I couldn't quite place a theme for the decor. The tile work and fairly surreal "trees" around the bar area gave it a really unique look.

Julian Serrano is originally from Madrid, and he has another restaurant here in Vegas, Picasso in the Bellagio.

We started with a selection of Spanish cheeses, including Cabrales, Manchego, Cana de cabra, and La Serena. The cheeses were served with fig preserves and crusty bread. My favorite was the La Serena, it's a very soft sheep's milk cheese.

The next course was tuna with "molecular" raspberry, little squares of ahi tuna rolled in sesame seeds, and topped with a very intensely flavored cube of raspberry. I would wager that they pressed fresh raspberries for the juice, then thickened it with a bit of agar agar, then cut it into squares, but I'm not 100% sure. They were good, though, the raspberry with the tuna was odd at first, but they played well together. I liked the wasabi salt they served in the corner of each compartment.

Then there was lobster with "molecular" pineapple, I assume stabilized in the same way as above. I really liked these; the pineapple had a nice roasted flavor to it, and was very smooth with just a little bite to it. The lobster was perfectly cooked, and the sesame oil went really well with the fresh pineapple flavor. The aroma of this skewer was really complex and appealing, sweet, roasty, earthy... the flavor came in waves. Really nice dish.

Pintxos? Of course! House-made chorizo on mashed Yukon gold potatoes. I could eat many of these.

And a huge dish of paella for fun. The flavors were really intense, I especially loved the peppers with their sweet burst. This version was made with sausage, chicken, and rabbit.

I should probably add that the service at Julian Serrano was impeccable, the waiters were friendly and accommodating, everything came out in perfect order, and they had an excellent selection of Spanish wines by the glass. I really thought this restaurant was a great value, I highly recommend it to anyone swinging through Vegas.

We decided to head to Jean-Phillippe patisserie for dessert, just because they're amazing. Above is a super-rich carrot cake mostly comprised of cream-cheese icing. Yum.

The pumpkin cheesecake was really good, the shell around it is white chocolate. The tiny marzipan pumpkin on top was adorable.

This chocolate deal was my favorite of the desserts, though. A deadly combination of chocolate pate choux, chocolate pastry cream, ganache, and several other forms of chocolate, it had everything; crunchy/smooth textures, rich/light flavors, great looks...

And a millefuille, but this one was sugar-free. I was really impressed though, I would have never guessed it was sugar free. The raspberries on top with the crumbled pistachios really made it for me.

I have only one more project and two more final exams to go before I can relax prior to my overseas voyage. Unfortunately, I also picked up a cold in Ohio (I think that's where it came from) so for now all I feel like eating is warm tea with honey and maybe a fruit smoothie, my throat feels really awful. I'm hoping this clears up before I have to do any wine tasting. It's getting slightly better, but I'm still not up to par.

Adios!